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In 1978 or thereabouts, when my album collection numbered around 25, I polled a few friends, my brother and my sister and asked them to pick the “best records” in that collection. I assigned point values to all the entries and discovered, to my mild surprise, that the winner was Elton John’s sprawling double album, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”
A fine album, lots of quirky little songs on it, and of course a few monsters. All in all, worthy of the acclaim.
One of those songs provides the title for this essay.
I remember wondering why the song had no title. “And each day I learn just a little bit more; I don’t know why but I do know what for. If we’re all going somewhere let’s get there soon; oh, this song has no title, just words and a tune.”
All of 18 (the album was several years older by then), I wondered what those words meant. Was he too busy to title the song? Was it just not a high enough priority? Was this song an early take on “Life During Wartime”?
Was there just no time left for something so trivial?
I am not an economist. My highest education is one college course after high school and a slew of technical classes, and the millions of words I have read on my own in these last 30+ years.
No, I possess no special skill, no special knowledge, no crystal ball.
I just seem to be the only person around who recognizes the law of acceleration.
We’re all going somewhere, and it’s getting quicker all the time.
My oldest daughter is pushing 20. She likes to hang out in my bedroom chilling, usually with her current significant other. The other night I mentioned to her that, back in my day, there was still such a thing as a lazy summer, where you would sit or lie around with literally nothing to do.
No generation will ever again even comprehend the concept of “nothing to do”. Not even a power outage would be enough, unless it outlasted the charge on their batteries. Kids these days, and they come in all ages, have so many options at any given moment that multitasking is now an art, an essential skill, and those who are best at it will rise farthest and fastest.
We’re all going somewhere, but our heads are buried in gadgets while we go. I used to read while walking; kids these days drive while texting.
It’s a different world. And they have no idea what I’m talking about.
There’s such a thing as too busy. There’s only so much time and energy to go around. I got caught up in a brutally useless discussion of poor little Lindsay Lohan, who is actually catching some tough breaks in a California courtroom, but in the scheme of things, well, nobody can afford to go to the movies anyway.
And even if they could, they would just watch it for free, because they can.
The greatest social clash in human history is just over the horizon: How to get work and money out of a generation that grew up paying for nothing and getting whatever they wanted…
The movie “Wall-E” shows a human race which no longer knows how to walk or to socialize person to person, having truly become utterly fat and lazy. Since this is a fantasy, they don’t have to solve the problem of who pays for all of this sloth. But sure enough the American race is barreling toward that very outcome. Just today my brother told me that studies point to Americans being the fattest they’ve ever been and getting fatter.
And I sat there silently wondering, “Isn’t weight gain a sign of stress?”
The human race is stressed, has been for a long time, and America can no longer avoid it. A real unemployment rate populous enough to be the fourth largest state in the union, while at the same time the current infrastructure crumbles beneath us, the infrastructure we will need within 20 years isn’t even on the planning board, and all the reputable economists say if the government doesn’t spend more money, there will be another economic collapse.
And the Republicans veto extending unemployment benefits, in the cynical hope that a downspiraling economy will be blamed on the party in power, as it usually is.
So here is what you need to follow:
1. Big banks and big business caused the economic collapse.
2. The collapse robbed average citizens of all their wealth and ripped out from under them the wage earning capacity upon which they had based their entire standards of living.
3. Democrats were swept into power on the basis of this colossal failure.
4. The Republicans, despite having minorities in both houses, refused to compromise on any significant legislation.
5. Obama and the Democrats pushed through some early assistance, but not enough to springboard a recovery, and were too chicken to go back for more, and were too chicken to fight for extended unemployment benefits, because the midterm elections are coming up and they don’t want to be seen as carefree about the deficit.
6. The economy will continue to bounce between up and down, with a real risk of sinking completely, all through the election season.
7. Voters will punish the Democrats for failing to solve the problem.
8. By 2012, Republicans will have majorities in both houses as well as the presidency.
9. They will not waste that opportunity.
So, to recap, the people who caused all the damage will, very soon, end up in complete charge again, because the people who were chosen by the voters to solve the problem were too chicken to do what was needed.
The generation that swept them into power is now four years older and looking for something meaningful in their lives, such as an economy that seems to be alive and aiming for the future.
It’s too soon to lay out a map for how to get where we need to go, and it’s plainly evident that the people just aren’t angry enough yet to demand real solutions. But chances for real change come along very seldom, and in the modern political climate, the only “new ideas” coming from Republicans involve more use of American might abroad, and less regulation over American business, the policies which brought us to the brink of ruin.
And yet, the American people seem willing to forget, because, well, those Democrats weren’t any better.
No, they weren’t, and shame on them. The list of ways they went wrong is never-ending, because something new keeps coming along.
Somebody tell me how this ends. War with Iran? War with China? A meltdown to swamp the first one? Epic plague? Global warming run amok?
One thing I’m certain of, we’re all going somewhere and we’re going to get there soon.
Walt Bennett @ July 9, 2010
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Let me cross three ideas in your head, and see what we can come up with.
1. Charlie Wilson’s War
2. 9/11
3. Viet Nam
Item 1, Charlie Wilson’s War, is the story of how a U.S. Congressman combined with a single CIA operative to fund and arm the freedom fighters of Afghanistan who held off the mighty Soviet army in the 1970s and 80s, until they were finally able to inflict enough damage to send the Soviets home after seven years, as losers. We can debate all we want that this was the beginning of the formation of Al Quaeda, but the point I’m focused on is this: A band of guerillas defeated a mighty enemy. Why? Because Afghanistan is a bitch. Desert surrounded by mountains, completely landlocked, wild variation in climate and altitude, third world in terms of infrastructure outside a few major cities. In other words, a real dump. A real mess. A really frustrating place to try to win a war against dug-in, well armed natives.
Item 2, 9/11. This was the event which brought us to war with Afghanistan in the first place. Although mistakes were made, the Taliban and al Quaeda were routed, chased into the hills and across the border.
By all accounts, al Quaeda in Afghanistan is still toothless, but the Taliban have made a comeback. Why? Not through sheer force and domination, because if that was the case Americans would be welcomed as liberators. No, it’s because many Afghanis share belief systems with the Taliban, and because the Taliban represent a coherent form of government.
Item 3 is Viet Nam. America lost Viet Nam because we could not get a deal done. For most of the Nixon presidency, Henry Kissinger and others attempted to get a deal done with the north that would leave an intact south. They dropped bombs on the north to help convince them. It didn’t work and it couldn’t work because we could not slow down the north on the ground. We simply never convinced them that a truce was their best option, and they were proved right. The north never signed a truce, the U.S. had to be plucked off the embassy rooftop, and Viet Nam is today a unified, semi-prosperous whole. Who, by the way, enjoy peaceful relations with the U.S.
It’s time to find a way to get a deal done with the Taliban.
We start by acknowledging their legitimacy as a form of government. We start by insisting that they acknowledge the war against al Quaeda. The Taliban must denounce al Quaeda, must denounce terrorism, and must declare that they will not harbor such people and organizations. We must insist that we will stay in country as long as we are asked to and that we will leave when we are asked to. We offer aid and assistance in modernizing the country. We make peace with the Taliban, shake hands with the Taliban, and seek a way forward with the Taliban.
It is not for the United States to declare some forms of government and some forms of religious expression invalid.
That is a basic truth.
It is for the governed themselves to determine those things. The Taliban were routed, the Taliban came back. The people allowed them back. The people accepted them back.
Some will argue that the people were frightened and bullied into accepting the Taliban. I say that the point cannot be proved and that the available evidence contradicts that. And in the end I say it doesn’t matter, because we can’t fight wars based on opinion.
There is no threat to the U.S. from Afghanistan if the Taliban does not provide safe haven for terror.
So, if we sit around a table with each other and start with that as an imperative, by the time we get done offering aid and assistance, it is entirely possible that the Taliban will find wisdom in taking that deal, especially because the U.S. will acknowledge, through such an act, that the Taliban is indeed legitimate. the Taliban will agree to the rule of law, free and fair elections, and an initial power sharing arrangement with Kabul and the Karzai government.
Because there are two important lessons from the list above: the first is that, this is a bitch of a place to try to fight, and the second is that losing is a real option.
We missed a chance at a truce in Viet Nam and were stuck instead with an ugly defeat. Those are the same two options facing us in Afghanistan.
Walt Bennett @ June 27, 2010
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A little over 24 hours ago, I sat transfixed by the image on my PC screen. I was at MLB.com, watching a replay of what was supposed to have been the final out of a perfect game.
The headline that had drawn me there was this: “Galarraga loses perfect game on blown call”.
A blown call. On the last play. This I had to see.
A bouncer between first and second. The first baseman ranges to his right and cleanly backhands the ball while the pitcher churns toward first base. The first baseman squares to throw the ball as the pitcher looks down to find the bag. As he looks up, the ball is coming toward him and a little behind. He reaches for the ball, “snowcones” it in the webbing, looks down and completes his step, square in the middle of the bag. A discernible instant later, the runner’s foot hits the side of the bag. Up the line, umpire Jim Joyce, hunched and intent, takes a slight pause before emphatically and muscularly spreading his arms, half bent, signalling safe.
Gallaraga at first begins to celebrate, raising his arms, then sees the safe call, rolls his eyes and smiles. He can’t believe he’s lost his perfect game on a bang-bang play. Most witnesses realize that the call was wrong. Joyce starts getting earfuls from various Tigers. Gallaraga retires the next batter and gets strange, subdued hugs from his teammates. Several of them and the manager resume their tirades toward Joyce, who stands there and quite literally takes it like a man.
Joyce still thinks he got it right.
A short time later, Joyce addresses the press, having now seen conclusive evidence that he botched the call. “I just cost the kid a perfect game. The biggest call of my career and I kicked the shit out of it.”
I watched it over and over. I could barely believe what I was seeing. Why didn’t the umpires huddle? Why didn’t they simply correct the call? What would have been so wrong about getting together and comparing notes? They were all watching the play, with nobody on base. What would be the harm in checking with each other?
I will never understand that.
And so we were left with the aftermath, and it was a surreal aftermath. Long into the night, fans flocked to their favorite baseball forums and rendered their opinions repeatedly and at length. By my estimate, sentiment ran at least 4 to 1 in favor of the commissioner coming in with his eraser and changing the outcome of the game. I was vociferously among those.
I’ve changed my mind.
And not on any ground such as “purity of the game” and all of that, but because I don’t want this moment altered.
Yes, we could fix it. It was, after all, a math error. Those can be fixed with an eraser and routinely are. We couldn’t pass school without an eraser. Fixing mistakes is a skill, a tool, something good. Surely and obviously, fixing this mistake made perfect sense, and for two very important reasons: 1, the kid did pitch a perfect game. Getting the last call right would only certify that. You aren’t changing the outcome of the game in an unnatural way. There’s no speculating what would happen after that, because there was no after that, it was or should have been the last out. And 2, poor Jim Joyce. How was he supposed to live with himself? How could he possibly go on knowing what he had cost this kid, and how badly it would burn in him that nobody helped him fix it; not his fellow umpires, not non-existent replay, not the all-powerful commissioner. He would be stuck in a permanent living hell.
And now, nearly 24 hours later, Jim Joyce has managed to live one day since that moment, and in that day he has cried, he has shaken hands with Galarraga, he has received boos, hugs, cheers and an enormous amount of support. The Tigers manager called him a great man and a great umpire, one of the best. The Tigers organization declared that they would not seek to have the decision overturned. And all around baseball and even outside of it, people are talking about how well Joyce and Galarraga handled this awful circumstance.
And so we see that life is not so easily fixed with an eraser. Life is fixed by moving forward, not backward. To go back now and change the decision would be to alter this moment in an unavoidable way, to snatch away its purity.
It is what it is, and we’re all going to have to learn how to live with it.
And if that isn’t a life lesson, I don’t know what is.
Grace not only under pressure but under crushing disappointment. Learning to live with that. Learning to make something good from it. Learning that no matter how bad it seemed at the time, there is after, and after needs tending to.
After can be anything we want it to be.
Walt Bennett @ June 3, 2010
